Films in March 2018

March the third month of the year 2018 has started. This month has one official holiday of Pakistan Day on 23th March which is falling on Friday thus making it a long weekend.

Apart from the Pakistan Day, the other notable event in this month is the Hindu colorful festival Holi, on which there is a provincial holiday in the province of Sindh.

The major sporting event of our country Pakistan Super League (PSL) which started in the end of February (22nd February 2018) will end with the final in Karachi on 25th March 2018. Usually film makers avoid a direct clash with any popular sporting event like this and perhaps for the very same reason no mainstream Urdu film is releasing this month till the end of the PSL. Even the long Pakistan Day weekend has not attracted any notable film maker.

March is the month in which Spring season is in full bloom in most parts of Pakistan. Such pleasant weather results in lots of cultural and other events. But surprisingly since 2013 with the resurgence of the Urdu cinema, the number of released films in this month are on lower side. The main reason for which is perhaps the PSL. Since 2013 no Urdu film released in March has proven successful. Last year only one Urdu film Raasta was released in the last week of March (31st March 2018) which proved dumb at the box office.

This year two Urdu films are releasing that too on the last two weekends of March where one is an animated film.

Tick Tock (ٹک ٹوک)

Tick Tock an animated film is the first Urdu film releasing in March 2018 on the Pakistan Day weekend on 23rd March 2018.

Animated film genre is relatively new concept for Urdu cinema. The first commercial animated film was 3 Bahadur in 2015 which proved successful. In 2016 its sequel 3 Bahadur The Revenge of Baba Balaam also proved successful.

Another animated film Allahyar and The Legend of Markhor relesaed in February 2018 also proved successful and is still running in the cinemas. To date all the three animated Urdu films have proved successful which provides a healthy indication towards the future of animated films. Though all these three films proved successful, these are also criticized for their weak scripts.

Tick Tock has voice over from the leading artists of our country Ghulam Mohiuddin, Ally Khan, Ahsan Khan and news anchor Maria Memon.

The script and the screenplay of the film is penned by Omair Alavi the seasoned film critic of our country. With such big name writing the script it certainly raises the expectation of a film with well crafted characters and impactful dialogs.

With a long Pakistan Day weekend and the sequence of successful run of the previously released animated films Tick Tock have many favorable factors coming its way. The only major challenge the film might face is the clash with the final matches of PSL which also fall on the Pakistan day weekend.

Cake (کیک)
Cake is the only mainstream Urdu film releasing in March. “Cake” a story about love, loss and passage of time. Cake is releasing on 30th March 2018 worldwide in Pakistan, Europe, North America, Middle East. The World Premiere of the film is scheduled in London in the mid of March

Cake is the story of a troubled family from interior Sindh having rifts in the siblings. It is one of the very few Urdu films shot in the interior Sindh as well based on a Sindhi family.

Sanam Saeed and Amna Sheikh appearing as sisters in this film, while Faris Khalid is their brother. Amna Sheikh is making a comeback on the big screen after a gap of four years where her last film was O21 in October 2014. Both Amna Sheikh and Sanam Saeed are well reputed performers of our country and together their presence in a film raises the expectations level.

Adnan Malik on his big screen debut is the main male protagonist in Cake. Meekal Zulfiqar is also appearing in a cameo/side role in his first Urdu film after a gap of almost 11 years where his last Urdu film was God Father back in 2007.

Muhammad Ahmad and Beo Zafar Rana are playing the supporting roles in the film. Beo Zafar Rana last appeared in Good Morning Karachi in 2013, so Cake is her comeback film too.

Cake is a family drama film a genre which does not have mass audience in Pakistan. Films of this genre normally only proves successful at posh area multiplexes of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi. However such films do attract the overseas audience of the Urdu films.